Thanks
HotDog - thank you, any background information is a big help. I want to get the details correct, and your help is much appreciated. It is amazing how in retrospect it seems like the whole world stopped but a lot carried on as normal depending on where you were ... it's exactly these kind of surprising details that will help get the story right. Many thanks.
ButtieBox - not to worry this is a genuine query. My other half flies 757/767 out of London. He was in the air back on 9/11 - but over Spain in a cessna learning to fly. Part of the reason I want to start the book on 9/11 is because it had such a huge personal impact on our own lives - we put our life's savings, house, everything into training him only to find when he qualified no one was recruiting pilots. It's taken years of hard work and sacrifice to get to where he is now. I can get all the technical info I need from him, but not how it felt to be in the air, how people found out or what the atmosphere on the ground at that specific time in HK was like. Hope that explains things a bit better.
cuin5 - thank you very much. I'd really appreciate any background information and would be pleased to acknowledge any help in the eventual book if people would like that. I'm particularly aware how annoying it is to people who know about these things if I say they are flying west Tokyo/HK/Europe and get the timing of sunrises wrong, or write that there was hysteria in First Class because the passengers found out in the air when nobody could have known. Your help would be invaluable - thank you. Best regards.